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Adventure Summary
Play-Session 1 Date: 5/14/16 The group looks warily around at each other. This is the first meeting of the Magical Association of Problem Solvers, and while they know each other from the dossiers mailed to them upon their assignment to the MAPS squad, they haven’t met in person yet. Auguste Tawney, the duelist from Mississippi, sits quietly at the table in a burgundy sweater. Jo Mullen, a Scotch-English graduate of Hogwarts, looks worried over the giant backpack packed by her mother with an assortment of survival gear. Thisbe, a centaur from the Great Plains paces in the corner, clearly uncomfortable at the confining building. Tethys Munroe, a Scottish mer-wizard, rests his feet up on the table looking bored. Pickle the house elf stands in one corner, hiccupping every so often. An official looking brown barn owl swoops down into the middle of the group as they finish introducing themselves. Teth takes the letter and reads it aloud. Helena Smythe-Widgeon is sending them on their first mission to an eastern European country called Barovia. This magic-only community has been the site of many interesting events recently. There are rumors of ritual sacrifices, as well as werewolves and vampires wreaking havoc on the country. The ICW wants an investigation of the area including the recovery of certain items: · Jo - a tome of vampire lore · Teth – the Ravenloft icon · Auguste – the broken hilt of a bladed wand with a sun crystal of great power · Thisbe – a blood tree staff & a count of the dark magical creatures in the area “Above all, MAPS is tasked with stopping the rule of Barovia, a vampire named Strahd von Zarovich.” Teth reads, getting more interested, “His castle of Ravenloft is said to hold many horrors, but a magic mist has stopped other agents from getting in and out of the country so you will be unable to contact the ICW after you make landfall. The enclosed portkey will activate once all members of MAPS are touching it.” Jo looks at the portkey sitting on the table in front of the group, “Is that a bone?” “Probably a femur.” Auguste replies, “Because it’s so long.” The group looks a little worried at that, but Thisbe just shrugs, “Are you prepared?” “Let’s get a move on.” orders Teth. The others move closer with their equipment and reached out to touch the portkey. After an anticlimactic moment, it didn’t activate, and they looked around. “What’s going on? We’re all touching the portkey.” Teth asks. “It’s the house-elf.” Jo says pointing to Pickle standing in the corner still, his hiccups having subsided, “He’s considered part of the team.” “Pickle!” Thisbe says, “Come and touch the portkey.” After a whirl of color and sound, the group lands with a thud in a foggy forest, the afternoon light filtering through the dense trees. Auguste immediately took his wand out, scanning the trees, but seeing nothing alarming. Thisbe was the first to notice something strange, “The trees seem as if they are moving.” “How are we going to find our way out of here? Do any of you have a compass or a directional spell?” Jo asks, rummaging through her spellbook. Teth points, “Let’s just go that way and see what we find.” “I will mark the path with an arrow.” Thisbe says, taking out her bow and firing an arrow into the closest tree to mark their progress. Luckily, they only walk 30 feet before finding the end of a path leading straight into town. Wary, the group sends Pickle on ahead to scout. He finds a villager who seems friendly, so the others approach. The villager is immediately taken with Auguste and he takes the lead in talking to her. Vladia is a good-looking woman in her thirties who seems a little mal-nourished and is wearing clothes that are old, but were once very good quality. She ignores Teth’s attempts to intimidate her and tells Auguste that there has been a lot of dark magic going on in the village. “There are many rumors of werewolves and sacrifices, but one hears so many things that it isn’t certain what is truth.” She tells him, “You can ask anyone in the pub, and they will say the same.” As the group turns to leave, she hangs on Auguste, who shrugs awkwardly away from her. The team continues further into the village, wands still out. They notice that all of the shops are closed and get suspicious. Even the pub is locked up tight. Thisbe is the first to hear the sound of children whimpering, but when she and Jo try to investigate, they are swarmed by bugs. While they deal with the insects, Teth moves around them meeting two small children. They are ten year old Rosvalda and her seven year old brother Thornvold. Thornvold is enamored of Teth who looks impressive and chatters away. A frustrated Teth asks questions, but gets shushed by Rosvalda who simply says, “There’s a monster in our house.” “Take us there.” Teth orders, and the team is led to a large house with mist gathering behind it. They ask for details about the monster and the children tell them, “It’s been there our whole lives. We’ve never seen it, but you can hear it howl. It’s in the basement and our baby brother is upstairs on the third floor.” The group sends Pickle in as a scout again. When nothing is heard from Pickle, Thisbe and Teth go inside to begin the investigation. Auguste and Jo attempt to keep watch, but a growing fog presses closer and closer to them. “Maybe we should join the others?” Jo suggests. Auguste nods and follows her inside where the door slams shut. He tries the handle, but it won’t open, “I guess we’re stuck now.” They look around the hall to see a red marble staircase at one end and several doors on either side. Meanwhile, Teth and Thisbe explore what appears to be a formal dining room. The furniture is all mahogany, and there’s a grand chandelier throwing light onto a large detailed tapestry. Next door, Jo finds the kitchen; it is neat and tidy with bland looking food in the pantry. Auguste explores the coat closet, looking for anything of interest, but coming up empty. Across the hall from the dining room and kitchen they find the Den of Wolves. Several stuffed wolves are around the room which is full of more mahogany and chandeliers. Pickle attempts to open a cabinet on one wall and is sucked in by a magical booby-trap. Thisbe is the only one who looks concerned. She manages to open the cabinet and let Pickle the house-elf fall out gratefully onto the floor. In the cabinet behind him are four crossbows of various sizes and a stock of bolts for each. The others let Thisbe take these weapons as they continue exploring. Thisbe stays in the den as the others ascend the stairs, “Stairs are not easy for me. I will look closer here.” The others agree and head upstairs; this hall is lined with suits of armor. Jo attempts to examine the suits which promptly crumple into the floor, “Sorry!” Jo blushes. Teth rolls his eyes, pilfering an expensive cloak from a nearby closet. Auguste ignores the incident, heading into the conservatory which is full of musical instruments. Jo turns into the library to explore the books. Downstairs, Thisbe finds a trapdoor; together with Pickle, she descends to find a large corridor that splits in two directions. She sends Pickle to alert the others. “Master Tethys, Mistress Thisbe be finding a big basement. She be sending Pickle to tell you.” The house-elf says, picking the person most likely to ignore him to tell. Teth is bored with the rooms on the second floor though and goes down to see what the basement is like. “You can stay up here. The basement is probably scary.” He says to the children. But Rose and Thorn shake their heads and continue to follow him around like ducklings. In the conservatory, Auguste notices that some of the ivory figurines are genuine skeletons, “What kind of place is this?” he asks himself. In the library, Jo finds a secret door behind one of the bookshelves. A secret room behind the shelf holds some rare looking books and a chest which has a skeleton half-hanging out of it. Upon closer inspection, the skeleton is seen to be holding a letter. The letter turns out to be about a feud between the owner of this house and his master, the infamous vampire Strahd. In the basement, Thisbe and Teth split up. Thisbe walks down the north hall which seems to go a long way, and Teth goes east. Suddenly, four ghouls appear, surrounding him. Teth quickly calls for Pickle and Thisbe who join him to face the ghouls. Auguste and Jo, two floors above them, have no idea what’s going on as they continue exploring cabinets and closets on the second floor. Wasting no time, Thisbe uses one of her newly acquired crossbows to injure one of the ghouls. Teth takes this chance to cast a frost armor spell on himself and send Pickle to take on of the ghouls up to Auguste to fight. Since he was accomplished dueler, Teth figured Auguste would have no problem taking on one of the ghouls for them. As she reloads her crossbow, a ghoul attacks and mortally injures Thisbe, who is saved by a quick intervention from Teth. Thisbe and the children head back into the main area of the basement while Teth fights the ghouls. Upstairs, Pickle has turned invisible because of a flaw in his magic, so Auguste sees a ghoul suddenly appear but doesn’t know that Pickle has brought it. He quickly kills the ghoul with some fast spell work and looks around for the source of the monster. Pickle apparates back to the basement, visible again, but floating breezily through the air. Another ghoul is taken upstairs, and soon they are all dispatched. Teth and an injured Thisbe head back upstairs, followed by Rose and Thorn, where they regroup on the second floor. Together, they head upstairs to the third floor where the children had said their baby brother was. On the landing of the third floor, the team is attacked by an animated suit of armor. Out in the hall, the other four battle the suit of armor. Jo’s first spell misses, but Teth’s spell glances off the suit who then tries to attack Jo and misses. After being ordered to do something, Pickle tries to create a fireball but scares himself instead. At this point, Teth orders Thisbe to run since she’s injured, and she obeys, dashing into a nearby room that happens to be a bedroom. Inside she finds nice furnishings, including a vanity. On top of the vanity is a jewelry box, containing some valuable necklaces and rings. She puts this treasure into her saddlebags. Auguste is the next to cast at the armor which dodges his spell. Jo misses as well, but this time Teth blows off one of its arms. Auguste is then attacked by the irate suite of armor, and he is majorly injured. Ordered again to try something while they check on Auguste, Pickle fails to help, instead beginning to apparate all over the place, popping in and out in fear. Teth casts a spell to power up Jo’s armor, and using it, she’s able to injure the suit again. The weakened suit of armor injures itself trying to attack Teth who is still protected by the frost armor, and then the suit is vanquished. The children are in the corner, watching impassively. As soon as everyone is patched up, the group keeps moving. Thisbe and Jo then go into the room across the hall. They have just enough time to tell that this is the nursemaid’s room before the Nursemaid’s angry spirit appears and attacks them. Neither are in any shape to fight the spirit, so they call on Pickle to apparate the spirit down to the basement where they hope she will stay until they have recovered. Down in the basement, Pickle’s wild magic helps him recover HP in time for the spirit to attack him before he apparates away. Cautiously, the group explores the third floor, which is the family living quarters. They make sure to stay together now that they are all at least mildly injured. In the next room, the team finds the nursery. In it is a crib with a crying black bundle the size of a baby in it. Teth attempts to pick up the bundle with turns to mist at his touch. They turn to Rose and Thorn for an explanation. “The monster took him to the attic.” Rose says. “Or the basement.” Thorn says. The team nods, “Let’s find the attic first.” Teth suggests. Thisbe agrees, “We’ll deal with the basement later.” They spread out on the third floor to see if another hidden door will lead them upstairs. Jo stays in the hall and finds a secret passage. She is attacked by an animated broom. “Pickle! Take it away!” She yells quickly. Once the house-elf has apparated the broom, she looks into the secret passage, it’s a set of stairs that go up. “Hey! I found it!” she yells back into the hall. The others join her at the bottom of the stairs and look up.